May Day: the traditional time of gatherings to celebrate the end of the dark days and the coming of warmth and hope. Not in Greece 2010, it's not. Here, yesterday, 1 May marked instead the sudden eclipse of the good years and the imposition of a new age of austerity, and tens of thousands rallied on the streets of Athens in anger, shock and anticipation of the pain to come.
Make no mistake, this is going to hurt almost everyone here. What is coming – as part of a deal to provide eurozone loans aimed at rescuing Greece from near bankruptcy – are not a few, distant cuts in public spending, or efficiency savings that will erase a consultant here and a fringe project there. The measures – to be finalised at a Greek cabinet meeting this morning – will hit every citizen hard in the money belt. VAT is already 21 per cent and is likely to go to 23 or even 25 per cent. More...
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